by Felipe Venâncio (via Flickr)

This final post is concerned with one of my longest lasting obsessions: utopian thought.

I think the roots of this mania are in the very early realisation of many things that were wrong with the world I lived in when I was a child, which was itself a utopian experiment that went tragically wrong -( i.e. existing socialism of a Hungarian variety aka the happiest barrack). It is lined with passionate belief in the unique value of every single individual and an outrage at so many people being forced to compromise their talents for mere subsistence. Delving into Marxist philosophy I gradually explored the rich and fascinating genre of utopian literature.

One of the key problems with utopias is that they tend to describe a world one would not enjoy living in, a bit like heaven which sounds like the most boring place ever, with all that singing and dancing and sitting around being happy.

The basic problem with utopias is that life consists of conflicts. Different views, values and desires render the creation of an ideal state pretty much impossible. So far, any attempts at creating them have been disastrous. The task is then to create an ideal society which is based on the total freedom of every individual to fulfil their own potential.

There are some ground rules to the society I imagine:

Work:

People start work at the age of 40.  Until then, they learn, travel, explore – all financed equally by a central authority. People don’t retire, they stop working when they feel that they have contributed enough to society. Far too many older people are forced to leave work at an age when they could still be useful just so that they can give their place to young workers. This system is failing completely these days. The proportion of unemployed school leavers and university graduates continues to rise. In some countries over 50 percent of youngsters join the dole cues, while older people are also forced into retirement.

I strongly believe that most, if not all the jobs we think of as less desirable can be performed by machines and/or replaced by technological solutions that are readily available. Also, one would be surprised at what some people would actually enjoy doing if it weren’t stigmatised by societal discrimination. In many cases it’s not the job but the social stigma that keep people away from performing certain tasks. And of course, there is also the chance of retraining if one is not happy with the job they have chosen or want to try something else.

Industry:

Whole segments of industry that produce products for the sake of production will be abolished. Manufacturers will be responsible for making sure their products are sustainably produced, recyclable and high quality. Disposable materials will be suppressed. Don’t forget,  if people have a choice to create meaningful things, they will not choose to put together plastic toys that fall apart the moment you take them out of the shops, or furniture that falls apart before you assemble the flat pack. We now have the technology to produce high quality goods without completely exhausting the earth’s resources. The shift from quantity to quality has to happen before long if we want to stop the world turning into a massive rubbish heap.

Economy:

This is a dangerous and difficult one and possible the one most open to attacks, especially as it has not been tried. However, I believe that everyone should be given the same salary.  It is work that should be rewarded, not individuals themselves.  Because people have chosen to do their jobs based on their love of the work, an unequal remuneration system would signal that some people’s jobs are less valuable than others’, which is unfair and demoralising.  The value people receive from their work is not measured by salary, but by the pleasure they receive from doing something they truy have prepared their whole lives to do. This is why in many countries, universities and colleges end up with teaching faculties catering for low or mediocre students, as becoming a teacher is considered a financially unwise choice.

I believe that the differentiation between individuals based on how valuable they are is the source of much of the discontent, disenfranchisement,  anger and frustration so characteristic of the world today. In my utopia, you are given the opportunity to choose whatever course you want to take. You do have to start work at the age of 40, but you get a year off every 6 years which you can use to re-train or further develop. Of course if you want to go on working that’s also possible, and your income will remain the same regardless. .

Education:

Parents can choose when they want to have children. Raising children is considered a full-time occupation paid at the same level as any other job. Parents who want to work can take children to communities of parents whose choice is to look after children. In my experience a lot of people actually enjoy working with children.
Children’s formal education starts at the age of 10. Until then they get to live with their parents (who if they are still in their 20′s or 30′s are not working yet if they don’t want to), they travel together, they spend time together and they get exposure to new experiences and people in parenting  ”clubs” where children and parents get together and try out new activities. By the age of 10, due to the experiences they have had, children will be able to make much better choices regarding the activities they enjoy and want to pursue.

These are some of the fundamental characteristics of my ideal world. There are of course many aspects of life I have not had a chance to elaborate on in this post (media, entertainment, politics and its institutions, healthcare, arts, etc.) my intention was to highlight some of the key and perhaps most controversial aspects of a society that looks ideal to me. I believe the world as it is at the moment is not sustainable, it is based on social injustice that stems from a long history of colonisation, prejudice and oppression. The world we have inherited is fundamentally flawed, its foundations need to be revisited if want to survive, prosper and advance.
Crazy? Of course it is. But I love spending time daydreaming and building this little perfect state which helps me identify aspects of society I don’t like, and reinforces my love of humanity, creativity and fairness.

—————————————————————————————————————————————————————–

I’s been tremendous fun working on these posts this week. Thanks to Tyson for starting the challenge. Do check out his posts from this week: on transferability, his five takeaways from this academic year, on checking comprehension, his beautifully written letter to his students and one on 10 special words.

Mike Harrison has also written some brilliant posts this week, on empty vessels, on the dullest blog in the world, on Tweet Archivist, and on coursebooks.

I enjoyed this so much that I will try to go on with the #5days5posts for one week every month. The difference will be that the posts will be organised around one topic each time, though I really enjoyed the wide spectrum of topics I got to cover this week.